Episode 45: Building a Meaningful Career Through Illness
Nov 14, 2024
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Have you ever felt like your career is constantly interrupted by illness? Living with a health condition can often mean adjusting, changing paths, and even stepping away from jobs you love. In Episode 45 of Wellbeing Interrupted, I share my journey of building a meaningful career despite MS and cancer—and how each interruption has led me to where I’m meant to be today.
How Illness Redirected My Career Path
Over the years, I’ve held many different roles, each of which was influenced by my health. After university, I began my career at Telstra in customer service training, a role I loved. Unfortunately, MS relapses meant I had to put the job on pause. Eventually, it became clear that a corporate career wasn’t sustainable with MS. Moving forward, I transitioned into social work, working in emergency housing and supporting those in crisis. This experience opened my eyes to others’ struggles and began my curiosity about resilience and mindset—a core part of what I teach today.
From Career Setbacks to New Skills and Purpose
As relapses continued, I took on roles that allowed me to work from home, including working for a marketing consultancy and reconnecting with the skills I developed in my business degree. During this time, I also wrote Life Interrupted, reflecting on my experience with MS. Eventually, I found myself working as an auditor within the disability sector. This role connected me with countless individuals navigating life with health conditions, helping me gain a unique perspective on resilience and insight into the challenges others face.
Embracing Illness and Career Changes as Growth Opportunities
Through each career change and every health challenge, I learned that while career disruptions can feel frustrating, they can also be opportunities to grow and learn. I now see that every position I held, every skill I gained, and every setback I faced brought me closer to Hurdle2Hope®️. Living with illness often brings perspective, clarity, and even the desire to align one’s career with a greater purpose. If you’re experiencing similar challenges, consider using this time to focus on personal growth and aligning with what truly matters to you.
How Illness Led Me to a Career of Purpose
Reflecting on my journey, I see that each interruption was a stepping stone to my work at Hurdle2Hope®️. Though I once feared that illness was blocking my path, I now realise that every experience—each frustrating career shift and each unexpected change—was preparing me for what I’m meant to do today. If you’re navigating a similar path, trust that you, too, can build a meaningful career aligned with your unique experiences.
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Episode 45 Transcript: Building a Meaningful Career Through Illness
[00:00:00] Teisha: Hey there, Teisha here, and welcome to episode 45 of Wellbeing Interrupted. It's been a busy week here in Daisy Hill. Andrew's been getting ready for Australia's bushfire season, so we've been creating fire breaks around our property, so Yeah, Australia bushfire season is a bit scary, so I guess I really feel like I live in the bush now.
[00:00:28] Um, but it's really important to get ready for that, so I'm glad he knows what to do. And I've been busy getting ready for the MindBodySpirit Festival, which is on in Melbourne this coming week. So if you're local in Melbourne, I'll be presenting in the Speaker's Lounge on the 15th, which is a Friday, and the 16th of November.
[00:00:56] Um, Yeah, so DM me, email me, Teisha at Hurdle2Hope, if you want more details. And as I've been working on the actual presentation, I felt really energised and I really love what I'm doing at the moment. And I realised I'm exactly where I'm meant to be right now. And I've never felt that before in my life.
[00:01:28] Hurdle2Hope And if we're talking career wise, my career has been such a source of frustration over the years, and for many of us living with a health condition, that is the case, as illness or disability, Often keep interrupting our work, and then our careers, but by listening to this episode, I hope you can see through what's happened to me, that although my career was interrupted so many times by MS, and then cancer, In each interruption, this led to me developing more skills, gaining new experiences, and now, as I sit here, I realise that everything led me to be in this very moment, and that's why I'm smiling.
[00:02:27] That's why I'm happy, and I hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to Wellbeing Interrupted, the podcast dedicated to exploring the transformative power of a healing mindset. I'm Teisha Rose, your host and creator. and the founder of Hurdle2Hope. If you're on a quest to not just survive, but thrive after a life changing diagnosis, then you're definitely in the right place.
[00:02:56] Living with MS and now stage 4 breast cancer has taught me a vital lesson. In the face of a life changing illness, our mindset is everything. Each week, I'll share insights, tips and strategies to help you build a happier, healthier life. I want to give you a bit of a background as to my career. It's a bit like going through my CV or resume.
[00:03:34] But I do this to really highlight what my experience has been, why I felt really frustrated by constantly having these jobs interrupted, but why it's important. Each was so important to giving me the skills and experience to create Hurdle2Hope. So my very first job, um, after graduating, um, university, so I did two degrees.
[00:04:05] I did a Bachelor of Business Management. So I did a Bachelor of Business Management. Then a Bachelor of Arts. I majored in Psychology and I started my career at Telstra. Now Telstra is Australia's largest telecommunications company. It was an amazing opportunity to be part of such a big organisation. I love my job and that job was in Customer Service Training.
[00:04:33] Then I wrote training material. So I learned how to put courses together. Then I got another promotion and worked as a training manager within their payroll area. And I love this job. I learned the skills of how to facilitate, you know, anything from one hour workshops to two week induction programs. And I kept experiencing relapses though.
[00:05:05] And I didn't want to give in to those because I loved what I was doing so much. So I kept pushing through all the symptoms. Couldn't be done during 2000 because I, my life came to a standstill. I spent months and months in hospital. It was a wake up call for me. And I realised this career was not going to work with MS.
[00:05:31] But now I reflect and I think all of the skills I learnt in that job From presenting, writing training materials, project managing, setting up new training programs, all of those are now what I'm drawing upon. So when I left Telstra, I had a career change. And I think that's a good lesson in itself when we're living with an illness that if our original careers aren't a good fit, that's okay.
[00:06:04] You know, we can be open to doing something differently. So I went back to university. I did a Bachelor of Social Work. I loved the course and then I actually ended up working mainly in emergency housing. So the organisation I worked with was Hurdle2Hope. In Central Victoria, in a town called Bendigo. So I'm in Australia, for those of you who don't know.
[00:06:32] And I really worked with people experiencing homelessness. And I was also As part of that role, worked for a day or two in a local prison, um, supporting men who were about to be released from jail and needing to find accommodation. This experience, from going from a corporate career, living in the city Melbourne, to then working, As a social worker, I opened my world up.
[00:07:09] I realized I'd been really protected from all of the challenges other people experience. It put living with MS into perspective, especially when I met with and worked with women escaping domestic violence, you know, women living in a car with their children trying to get accommodation in a caravan park.
[00:07:32] It was really heartbreaking, but it was during this time that I really started thinking about what makes someone's response to crisis different. So, so many people had the same experiences, and I'm not just talking domestic violence. I've worked with many who, or even younger people, who have You know, had difficult upbringings or different things that happened in their past.
[00:08:04] And I kept thinking, why do some people have similar experiences? Yet, somehow, some are able to move forward, where others remain stuck, and their life becomes defined by what's happened to them. And this really was where my curiosity about mindset was born, so I really took that from my experience as a social worker.
[00:08:34] Unfortunately, My social work career also had to come to an end as the relapses started again, and I realised the emotional drain of my social work career was just too much for my body. And I also became really frustrated as I knew I wanted to have an impact on social policy around housing, and I knew Those type of jobs were going to be too full on with my health, with MS, so I took a break.
[00:09:10] At that same time, my dad started up a consultancy with a business partner, and I was able to work from home. I reminded myself of the skills I learnt in my business degree, so I was doing admin tasks, including bookkeeping. Um, I also did lots of Editing and proofreading of the different collateral they developed for their clients.
[00:09:34] They worked with clients who were not for profit organisations. So it was really interesting, frustrating at times because again, I knew because of MS, I wasn't I knew I could do so much more, but at this time I also knew I had to prioritise my health, so I took this opportunity to write a book. So this is when I wrote Life Interrupted, and the That was such an amazing experience for me.
[00:10:10] I think it gave me confidence that I could reflect on my experience with MS and then write about it in a way that would help others. And my book Life Interrupted was so important for me. to give me that confidence, but I was also really taken back, you know, by the positive response because I was so nervous writing the book.
[00:10:40] But then another career change and as Dad's partnership was winding up, I started looking for new opportunities and that's when I came across auditing of disability service providers. What made that a really good fit for me was I could bring to that position my lived experience with MS, also my business degree qualifications, but being a social worker meant that I could really focus.
[00:11:16] in on service delivery. So part of my role in audits was connecting with participants or clients. I interviewed thousands of people with a disability. or with health conditions. And that gave me such incredible insights, not only to the diversity of different health conditions and disabilities, but also to how different people experience and cope with that.
[00:11:52] But again, my health meant that that career came to an end, that job came to an end, as I mentioned in episode 34. After I was diagnosed with breast cancer and then receiving the stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis, I was still working as an auditor and I kept doing that for another sort of six months, but I was on an audit and I slowly realized that I was struggling to speak.
[00:12:25] My voice didn't just have the same projection. And as I share in episode 34, I was diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia. I still struggle to speak a bit, but at that time and for over 12 months, I could hardly get a word out. It was Beyond frustrating, you know, I've dealt with a lot with MS and now with cancer, but this nearly broke me.
[00:12:59] It was, you know, I rely so much on my voice and not being able to talk, not being able to be understood was so hard. But this experience, I think was meant to be part of my journey. I really believe that it was part of the trauma I experienced with the diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer, and I also believe it was the universe's way of stopping me, telling me to be still, be present, and to really focus inwardly on my healing, And to also focus on my business, Hurdle2Hope.
[00:13:50] Hurdle2Hope was something launched before my diagnosis with cancer. I was actually just about to launch my first course, Healing Mindset. MS, it was just going to be about MS and I didn't do that launch because of cancer, but now I was able to apply everything I'd learnt from MS, everything I'd put into that course, I applied it to living with cancer.
[00:14:27] And I think that's what I needed to give me confidence, that all of the insights, that although they were born from my experience with MS, that they now applied to a condition that is so different to MS, and that's now given me Confidence that everything I teach in Hurdle2Hope can apply to any health condition.
[00:15:02] Okay, so that's a bit about me, but as you can see, my career has been As I was going through it, it has been so disjointed, and it was filled over the years with such frustration. But now as I sit back and reflect, I can see a reason for everything I've done. Every position, every organisation, everyone I met in those roles, have helped me develop skills to gain experience that I can apply in my work at Hurdle2Hope.
[00:15:45] And if MS hadn't happened, I would have had a really successful corporate career, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But for me, I know I wouldn't have been happy with that, that Even before MS, I knew I wanted to have a life of purpose. I wanted to contribute and part of the devastation of being diagnosed with MS at 22, I grieved because I thought my life now would be devoid of meaning, that I wouldn't evolve, that my purpose in life would never be reached.
[00:16:34] But I I want to encourage you that even if you're frustrated by how your illness or disability is impacting your life now, don't stop learning and growing. What you're doing now, the work you're doing, may be the exact experiences you need to have. You may be learning the skills you need for whatever other opportunities happen in your life.
[00:17:05] And I think what's really important to keep doing. No matter what you're doing with your job, so during the times where I was frustrated in work, you know, when at times I knew I could do more than the jobs I was doing, but it was important to do those jobs to Prioritise my health and wellbeing, but during those times, it freed up space to work on myself and that personal growth is so important because if we are to live well, if we're then going to do work that we're meant to be here to do, then we need to take all of the opportunities to get the skills we need, career wise, but also the skills and growth we need to live well.
[00:18:01] And sometimes I talk about our illnesses as being a gift, and I say that not to minimize what we're going through, because living with your health condition is difficult, there's no denying that. But the gift for me is that your illness enables you to get perspective on life, and If all of a sudden you start thinking about life differently, then you'll want a career more aligned with your purpose.
[00:18:38] So take this time to also work on your personal growth and your well being. You know, work out what your purpose is, then work out what skills you need to align with that, but what growth do you need to do personally to ensure you're ready to step into that purpose. Go Terps! Go Terps! And that's what I loved about my conversation with Kalina last week.
[00:19:06] So on episode 44, Kalina shared her story of becoming deaf at the age of four, and now she's got her own business called Deaf Queen Boss. She's written a book. She's about to write another book about being an entrepreneur with a disability. And she has such a powerful story of even though, of course, incredible challenges navigating a hearing world when you are deaf, but she's continued to go to school, even though that was a real struggle for her, particularly being in a hearing school.
[00:19:52] And then she went on to university, studied psychology, and now she's written a book, she has her own business, and she's also writing another book. So there are so many examples of people doing that. I'm sharing more of those stories on future episodes of Wellbeing Interrupted. And when you listen to those stories, really start thinking about your own career, your own life with your illness, and get excited about the different possibilities that may be ahead of you personally, also in relation to your career.
[00:20:40] Okay, so thank you for listening to another episode. Hopefully you've gained a bit out of it and also got to know me a little bit better and hopefully understand why I'm so excited about what I'm doing now at Hurdle2Hope because I truly do believe that this is where I'm meant to be right now and if you're watching this Also, listening to this and you're struggling at the moment, if you're frustrated about the impact your illness is having on your career, I want you to try and trust your path as well and take this time to work on yourself, and who knows where that will lead.
[00:21:31] You might start writing like I first did. You might even do a podcast, a course, a workshop, who knows? But that's what's exciting, that if you continue to keep building the momentum and keep moving forward, then, as I talk about in Hurdle2Hope, that unimagined possibilities still can be part of your future.
[00:21:59] As always, I'm Teisha. I give you a few episodes to listen to, so if you haven't listened to last week's episode, I encourage you to hear Kalina's story. As I mentioned, Kalina is navigating this world as someone who is deaf and her story was incredible. I also mentioned episode 34 where I share with you About my experience with muscle tension dysphonia, within that episode, I actually found some audio of how bad my voice was, so listen to that.
[00:22:41] Also, some announcements in relation to Hurdle2Hope, my Healing Mindset Illness course is nearly ready. Join the waitlist. I'll put the link in the show notes. And if you happen to be in Melbourne, I'd love to see you at the MindBodySpirit Festival on Friday the 15th, Saturday the 16th of November. So coming up very soon.
[00:23:10] Hope you have a good week and look forward to chatting soon.
